The Vortex: An Environmental History of the Modern World

by Frank Uekotter

Overview

Environmental challenges are defining the twenty-first century. To fully understand ongoing debates about our current crises—climate change, loss of biological diversity, pollution, extinction, resource woes—means revisiting their origins, in all their complexity. With this ambitious, highly original contribution to the environmental history of global modernity, Frank Uekötter considers the many ways humans have had an impact on their physical environment throughout history. Ours is not a one-way trajectory to sudden collapse, he argues, but rather death by a thousand cuts. The many paths we’ve forged to arrive in our current predicament, from agriculture to industry to infrastructure, must be considered collectively if we are to stay afloat in what Uekötter describes as a vortex: a powerful metaphor for the flow of history, capturing the momentum and the many crosscurrents that swept people and environments along. His book invites us to look at environmental challenges from multiple perspectives, including all the twists and turns that have helped to create the mess we find ourselves in. Uekötter has written a world history for an age where things are falling apart: where we know what lies ahead and are equipped with the right tools—technological and otherwise—and plenty of experience to deal with environmental challenges, but somehow fail to get our affairs in order.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822989806
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	04/18/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	848
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Frank Uekötter is professor of environmental humanities at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of more than a dozen books on a broad range of environmental, political, and socioeconomic issues. Since October 2021, he is principal investigator of the global history project “The Making of Monoculture” with generous support from a European Research Council Advanced Grant.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction | A New History for a Young Century Part I: Essentials 1. Potosí | Rich in Metals 2. Sugar | The New Organic 3. The Canal du Midi | The Great Mobilization 4. Sustainable Forestry | The State of the Woodlands 5. Shipbreaking in Chittagong | Leftovers Part II: Appropriations 6. The Land Title | To Own a Place 7. Breadfruit | Food Choices 8. Guano | The Fertility Business 9. Whaling | Resources at Sea 10. United Fruit | The Great Corporate Banana Part III: Irreversible 11. The Dodo | Species That Perish 12. The Boll Weevil | The Nemesis of Monoculture 13. The Little Grand Canyon | The Perils of Erosion 14. Cane Toads | Immigrants on the March 15. Saudi Arabia | The State of Resources Part IV: Technology takes Command 16. London Smog | In the Age of Coal 17. The Water Closet | Producing Cleanliness 18. Chicago’s Slaughterhouses | Animals on the Line 19. Synthetic Nitrogen | Farming on Steroids 20. Air-Conditioning | Engineering the Climate Part V: Ruptures 21. Cholera | The Nature of Disease 22. Baedeker | Guidance for Seekers 23. Gandhi’s Salt | To Change the World 24. The 1970 Tokyo Resolution | International Conventions 25. The 1976 Tangshan Earthquake | Somewhat Natural Disasters Part VI: The Final Reserves 26. Kruger National Park | Reserved Nature 27. Eucalyptus | Supertrees 28. Hybrid Corn | Breeding Ambitions 29. Aswan Dam | Damming and Developing 30. The Rice-Eating Rubber Tree | Speaking of Dependence Part VII: The Age of Catastrophe 31. Holodomor | The Politics of Hunger 32. The Pontine Marshes | Fighting for Space 33. The Chemurgy Movement | The Business of Biofuels 34. Autobahn | The Endsieg of Automobilism 35. The Pine Roots Campaign | The Totality of War Part VIII: The Great Entrenchment 36. Battery Chicken | The Industrialized Animal 37. Lucky Dragon No. 5 | Atoms without Limits 38. DDT | Learning from a Book 39. Torrey Canyon | Coping with Technological Failure 40. Plastic Bags | Ephemeralia Coda | The Pandemic The Mess We’re In | An Inconclusive Conclusion Appendix | Making Choices Notes Index

Editorial Reviews

The Vortex is a sprawling mural worthy of Diego Rivera, depicting some forty stories in modern environmental history. Frank Uekötter is provocative at every turn, alive to ambiguities, moral and otherwise, and resistant to the temptation to impose consistency on the divergent, erratic, and unruly paths of different histories. Rejecting grand narratives, he offers a smorgasbord of stories from the centuries between 1500 and 1970 and from every inhabited continent, ranging freely from the cane fields of the Caribbean to the cane toads of Australia. A rich addition to the slender literature on global environmental history.

J. R. McNeill

[The Vortex] is a thoroughly researched synthesis that at its best reassesses the field of global environmental history.

H-Net Reviews

This monograph is an example of how historians might approach global environmental history. The prose, intellectual concepts, and presentation are all brilliant.

Choice Reviews

The Vortex is an extraordinary book. In the ebullient and high-quality editorial field of environmental history, it stands out as unique: there is nothing in the recent literature that approaches its level. This major work procures for the public an intense intellectual experience about the most compelling and difficult issues of our modern predicament. It is not only exhilarating to read; it is, more importantly, deeply rewarding for the mind. The reader comes out enlightened, more educated about profound issues that concern us all and our future.

Marc Elie

The Vortex is a remarkable work of scholarship and an ambitious experiment in writing a new type of history that seeks to transcend the often overconfident claims made by conventional historical narratives. Frank Uekötter provides a stunning array of historical case examples from around the globe, encompassing everything from Peruvian silver mining to breadfruit cultivation to the Nazi autobahn. The depth, breadth, and range is nearly encyclopedic in scope, which perhaps should be the case for all global history, yet in practice is only rarely achieved. The sheer volume of research, information, and analysis is breathtaking.

Timothy J. LeCain

This monograph is an example of how historians might approach global environmental history. The prose, intellectual concepts, and presentation are all brilliant.

Choice

"[The Vortex] is a thoroughly researched synthesis that at its best reassesses the field of global environmental history."
—H-Net Reviews
 

"This monograph is an example of how historians might approach global environmental history. The prose, intellectual concepts, and presentation are all brilliant."
—Choice

“The Vortex is a sprawling mural worthy of Diego Rivera, depicting some forty stories in modern environmental history. Frank Uekötter is provocative at every turn, alive to ambiguities, moral and otherwise, and resistant to the temptation to impose consistency on the divergent, erratic, and unruly paths of different histories. Rejecting grand narratives, he offers a smorgasbord of stories from the centuries between 1500 and 1970 and from every inhabited continent, ranging freely from the cane fields of the Caribbean to the cane toads of Australia. A rich addition to the slender literature on global environmental history.”  —J. R. McNeill, Georgetown University 

“The Vortex is an extraordinary book. In the ebullient and high-quality editorial field of environmental history, it stands out as unique: there is nothing in the recent literature that approaches its level. This major work procures for the public an intense intellectual experience about the most compelling and difficult issues of our modern predicament. It is not only exhilarating to read; it is, more importantly, deeply rewarding for the mind. The reader comes out enlightened, more educated about profound issues that concern us all and our future.” —Marc Elie, National Center for Scientific Research, France 

“The Vortex is a remarkable work of scholarship and an ambitious experiment in writing a new type of history that seeks to transcend the often overconfident claims made by conventional historical narratives. Frank Uekötter provides a stunning array of historical case examples from around the globe, encompassing everything from Peruvian silver mining to breadfruit cultivation to the Nazi autobahn. The depth, breadth, and range is nearly encyclopedic in scope, which perhaps should be the case for all global history, yet in practice is only rarely achieved. The sheer volume of research, information, and analysis is breathtaking.”—Timothy J. LeCain, Montana State University 

From the Publisher